Microsoft refutes Natal October release date reports

As had been rumored in the past, the Xbox 360 Project Natal motion-sensing camera was "confirmed" for an October release earlier this month, by Microsoft Saudi marketing manager Syed Bilal Tariq.

At the time, Tariq said (in reference to Natal's release date): "It is going to be somewhere in October and we will be in a position to confirm the date at E3, which is in June, but definitely it is going to be October 2010."

Today, Microsoft has refuted Tariq's claim, saying that the manager is not even directly employed by the company.

Says the MS rep: "Syed Bilal Tariq is not a [Microsoft] employee. He is a vendor employed through a third-party company on behalf of the Microsoft subsidiary in Saudi Arabia."

The company adds it will reveal the official release date during the E3 expo next month.